21th General Assembly of Cieta, Lyon, France
- 2005History of Textile Research
Since its beginnings in the 19th century, textile
research has gone a long way and yielded important
results. During the last 50years, CIETA and its members
have made a great contribution to this field. To mark the
50th anniversary of CIETA, participants are invited to
give papers on topics as diverse as:
- the development of research tools and methods
- people and institutions involved in textile research
- discoveries and studies of particular consequence

Summaries
of papers dealing with embroidery, by members of the
embroidery group:

Conventional scholarship
attributes a Bengali provenance to Indo-Portuguese
embroidery. Recently researched ethnological evidence
suggests a larger context.
The Chalukyas of Kalyan played a central role in the
elevation of a rural embroidery tradition to courtly
status. The Kalyan dynasty had links with Mithila (Bihar)
and Bengal. The Portuguese in Goa were thus exposed to a
composite palette of embroidery based on orientations
developed by different elite groups.
My analysis is based on a study of these elite groups.
The evidence suggests that Indian participants were as
pro-active as their Portuguese patrons in the evolution
of this category in textiles.

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Pascale
Gorguet-Ballesteros, Paris, FranceThe history of textiles and the history of
costume: a joint contribution

The history of textiles and
that of costume are often viewed as two separate
disciplines. However, there is often much information to
be gleaned from the study of fabrics used for dress
concerning the origin of the clothes themselves, their
date, their use and/or their social function. Likewise,
clothes provide evidence of the employment of the
textiles used to make them. The last two exhibitions of
18th century costume at the Musée Galliera have enabled
research in this direction to be carried out. The
reconstruction of "families of clothes" has,
for example, revealed the recurrent use of certain
figured silks, indicating the existence in France of
local textile fashions, as distinct from the hegemonic
Parisian norm.

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Dela von Boeselager,
Cologne, GermanyA jewelled embroidery given by the Elector of
Cologne to the Madonna of Telgte
see also: book
reviews 2006

On the death of his mother,
the Electress Therese Kunigunde of Bavaria in 1730,
Clemens August, Archbishop and Elector of Cologne,
inherited more than forty pieces of jewellery made of
turquoise. He commissioned an embroidered garment to
serve as the support for the jewels and gave it to the
Madonna of Telgte, a place of pilgrimage in the diocese
of Muenster in Westphalia. A series of written sources,
previously unknown, now let us recontruct the story of
this votive gift. A French goldsmith and a German
embroiderer had the task of making this extraordinary
garment.

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Babette Küster, Leipzig,
Germany"Journal für Fabrik, Manufaktur, Handlung
und Mode" - a German trade journal from the end of
the 18th century as a source for textile history

This magazine was published
monthly in Leipzig from 1791 to 1806. It contains
accounts of international trading centres, commercial
laws, fairs and newly-developed products. In addition,
the manufacture and improvements in production techniques
for all sorts of goods are introduced.
In each number several illustrations of the latest news
in fashion, interior design and architecture as well as
four samples of fabrics complete the reports. The added
explanations name the manufacturer, materials, measures,
and price of the respective item.
This combination of written articles and illustrations
give extensive information about manufacturing and
distribution, which can be important for the study of
historical textiles and their restoration.

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Maria-Anne
Privat-Savigny, Lyon, France
A New Look at the Empire: little-known Lyon fabrics from
the early 19th century

The Empire ranks as one of
the most sumptuous periods in the history of Lyon silks,
as brilliantly illustrated by the studies published by
Jean Coural and Chantal Gastinel-Coural into Imperial
commissions. If the famous Pernon, Grand Frères,
Bissardon, Cousin, Chuard and Seriziat dominated silk
manufacture, the archives reveal, in addition to the
workings of the different silk manufactories, the
existence in Lyon of numerouus specialities such as net,
gauze, chintzes, not forgetting the essential role of the
men and women embroiderers who represent one of the
little-known aspects of the history of the Lyon
manufactories under the Consulate and the Empire.

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Marie Schoefer,
Lyon, France
A Specialized Vocabulary for Textile Conservators,
Partially illustrated by the treatment of a tapestry from
the Musée des Tissus in Lyon: the Bacchus by
Francesco Primaticcio (Le Primatice), Court
painter to the Valois, which was exhibited at the Louvre
in 2004

The treatment carried out on
this highly-degraded tapestry demonstrates the different
methods available and their respective limitations.
The terms defined by Ségolène Bergeon in her work "Science
et patience" ou la restauration des peintures,
RMN, Paris, 1990 are used as far as possible in the field
of textiles. However some modifications have been made to
adapt this vocabulary to our needs. The latter came to
the notice of all our colleagues in the profession in the
last few years. A specialized, European vocabulary for
conservators has therefore been created with the aim of
improving communication in the same way as the
establishment of the Vocabulary of Technical Terms by
CIETA 50 years ago.

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Florica Zaharia, New
York, United States
Research on traditional technology of hemp fibres in
Apuseni Mountains, Romania

I propose a presentation of
the onsite research of the traditional technology of hemp
production in the Apuseni Mountains area of Romania.
This material is based on more than ten years of research
on the villages of the Apuseni Mountains. Over this
period of time, working with women from the villages who
were involved for decades in the home textile industry, I
learned the essential steps in traditional hemp fiber
production. The years covered, reflecting the experience
of a generation of women in their 70 - 80s, as well as
their parents' knowledge, took my research,
chronologically, back to the second half of the 19th
century. The traditional textile technology practiced in
these particular villages was common to a much larger
area in Transylvania, as well as other areas in Romania.
The purpose of this study is to give an overview of this
technology up to the penetration into the area of
industrial products.

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Jennifer Barnett,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Six embroideries of Emile Bernard : characterization,
investigation and research

The Van Gogh Museum in
Amsterdam has five framed embroideries designed by the
French artist Emile Bernard made between 1892 and 1927.
They share the same embroidery technique which has been
carried out in woollen yarns on various canvases. A white
deposit is evident on the inside of the three of the
framing glass plates. One canvas has been enlarged with
strips of fabric, some of which are printed. All the
works are in a good condition except for the earliest
which ist badly faded by light.
The author proposed that the works be characterized and
investigated to the same degree as is often done with
paintings. The paper outlines the aims and methods of the
proposed procedures and reports the results. The 'hidden
agenda' of the author, is to demonstrate that the
academically trained textile conservator can bridge the
gap between art historians and conservation scientists in
the investigation of historical textiles. In addition to
textile science, textile conservators know the
characteristics of the wide range of textile types and
are alert to signs of historical evidence.
The dyestuffs of some works and the white deposit on the
glass have been analysed. The deposit seems to be due to
fatty acids and salts from the wool reacting with the
glass. The dyes are natural and early synthetic
dyestuffs.
Photography under ultra-violet and infra-red light was
carried out and the sensitivity of the dyes to water,
acidic and alkaline solutions and detergent was
determined to complement the dye analyses. The prints and
under drawings were tested for iron (Fe2) which causes
ink corrosion. A comparison of style and execution
between the five embroideries was made to ascertain
whether they were made by the same person. A replica was
made of the faded work in order to indicate the original
appearance intended by the artist.

It is known that
"Fraefel & Co, St.Gallen" sold embroidered
vestments all over the world. Last year a vestment with
the label "Fraefel & Co, St.Gall" was
discovered in Philadelphia USA. New research further show
that a group of nuns in the Benedictine convent of
Glattburg near St. Gallen were embroidering vestments: In
the archives of the convent, designs for embroidery were
discovered, and the cloister's account books clearly show
the relationship to Fraefel's manufacture. Most of the
works was done by hand embroidery, but the convent itself
also preserves chasubles with machine embroidered
motives.